This town brought nothing but misery and pain. For years and years I denied the fact but it was quite obvious now. My personality hadn't changed but I wasn't seen as a freak anymore and I had a social life but when I was here, I had one friend and now… well, I had nothing here anymore. I had been running from this town, attempting to stay out of it's lifeless pull, just to have it find a way to loop me back in; to set me up for another devastating blow to my heart – at least what was left of it. I will never come back, not after this.

"Another one," I said pushing the empty glass across the counter.

Guilt was circling around me and I wish that I could blend into my surroundings, to be invisible at will. I wanted nothing more then to sit and pull myself deeper into my alcohol relief but it was not helping with the guilt.

I had left the moment they pronounced Marron dead. I had run from it, maybe I was hoping that if I didn't face it, it wouldn't happen or maybe if I wasn't around, if I had just disappeared it would've been avoided. Either case though, I left Uub by himself, I left him in total despair.

The bartender gave me a questionable look as if trying to decide if I was capable of handling another drink but, nonetheless, made another whiskey sour for me and left it sitting in front of me.

I stared into the green mixture and continued to run in laps in my head. Marron was gone and it was my fault. She had seen the article and just because she knew I wouldn't read it myself, she had called me. She knew my schedule and she knew her best shot was to call me before work. It was all my fault.

"You're hitting those pretty hard," a seductive and musical voice came from the seat next to me.

"I need it," I muttered without looking towards the woman. My eyes were still focused on my drink but my mind was running back to the days in high school, back to before we had anything to be depressed about.

"Anything you want to talk about hun?" I didn't see her do it but I could tell that she had leaned in a little closer.

I ripped my eyes away from the glass and turned towards the woman. She was tall and skinny with a tender smile and full lips but none of those had caught my attention at first. It was the eyes. Those eyes were like the waves of the ocean; you could drown in them if you looked to long.

"No, not really, more something I want to forget," I muttered as I lifted the glass to take a long sip; the burn in my throat relieved the pain and guilt for a moment.

"I don't think that drinking will help you forget but I know that talking about it will help you reconcile it."

I looked over towards her again and took in the full sight of her. She was in a black suit with a red blouse under. Her hair was blue and her skin was fair but it just pulled in her full appeal. That's when I realized that I knew her.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as bitter as possible. She was the woman that was always right next to Trunks in every picture the media published and she had the nerve to come up to me.

She sighed and took a quick sip of the clear liquid in her glass, "Well, I see that you know who I am…" She said stirring her drink with the straw, "Well, I guess I should introduce myself. I am Bura Briefs, what would you prefer to be called, Kyle or Goten?"

I lifted my glass and downed the last portion of my drink before pulling out my wallet, "From you, I would prefer to be left alone. I guess your husband has told you about me, probably got a good laugh out of it but I would prefer to keep you both out of my life."

"Running from your past?" She said as she lifted the glass back to her lips and crossed her legs.

I pulled out a couple of twenties and laid them on the counter before climbing to my feet and having a short dizzy spell, "I am not running from my past, not anymore. I am here, in town, but I am not forgiving what that asshole did to me…"

"Falling in love with you?"

My anger was flaring right through the roof. He may have told her who I was but not what had actually happened, "He didn't fall in love with me, he won his fucking bet. You know, I bet you would've heard the entire story if you had talked to him with your legs closed."

I picked up my jacket and made my way towards the door but her voice carried to my ears, "You ran then and you are running now."

That hit right home. I turned towards her and spoke very clearly, "With good fucking reason. He played me then and you're playing me now. You are kicking the man on the floor, that's low. You both deserve each other. You both are manipulative assholes."

I could feel the whole bar looking between the two of us as everything around went silent. Her eyes were wide but her body language suggested that she had been expecting this kind of reaction.

"Goten, you're –"

"No, I am done talking. I don't know why you showed up here but I'm sure that he put you up to it, so I have a request. When you go home tonight, when you are laying in bed next to him, when he kisses you, just let him know that my response was for him will always be to fuck off."

I left the bar, hit the streets and began shaking. My chest burned and I wasn't sure what had been worse. That my first and only love had sent his slut to torture and manipulate me, or that when I really needed someone, he was the only person I could think of.

I dug my hand deep into my pocket and pulled out my phone but I just stared at it. I knew that my bags would be at Uub's house, that he would be waiting by the phone for my call, that he would drive all night to get me if I asked him but I couldn't do it, he was probably in the same state as me.

I forced my fingers onto the buttons, hitting each one before lifting it to my ear.

"Goten?" His voice was panicked.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Oh, sorry, was hoping you were someone else." His voice was still a little panicked but it was calmer.

My mind was still hazy but it all clicked in fast enough, "He's there with you?"

"Yeah," his voice cracked and I knew that their would be tears rolling down his face, "The funeral is going to be on Tuesday, if you need a hotel, the quality sweets isn't that far from my house."

"Did you get me a room?" I asked a little confused.

"Yeah, it's really nice there, their breakfast bar is amazing."

"Is my luggage there too?"

"Yeah, I would love to have you over but I have this obsessed stalker taking over my guest room even though he lives less then twenty minutes away."

I heard his voice in the background but couldn't make out what he was saying. It was muffled through my drunken state.

"Thanks Uub, I owe you one."

"Yeah, you too, I'll come by to see you tomorrow."

The phone disconnected and my hands dropped to my side. Even with Marron gone, I was still being protected from him; Uub was protecting me.

Sorry that this is so late. I had a huge case of writer's block in the beginning, then when it finally broke I was too busy to sit at my computer for any length in time. Here is the new chapter. I promise the next won't take so long. I am sitting down to begin writing it now.